


Imprisonment

by Fuinixe



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [3]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst, FebuWhump2021, Immortals in Space, Imprisonment, M/M, Mentioned Nile Freeman, Mentioned Quynh | Noriko, Temporary Character Death, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29192604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuinixe/pseuds/Fuinixe
Summary: Nicky has to watch Joe suffocate.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143242
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Imprisonment

Nicky would tell the kidnappers their secret, if he knew it.

This ship’s crew...he didn’t know who they were, or how they had found out about their immortality, although he had a few theories. But somehow, they did know, and worse, they were the sort of people who preferred torture as a method of information gathering. 

Why hadn’t they changed tactics by now? Didn’t they know that Nicky would give anything, spill any secret, if it meant he didn’t have to watch Joe die like this again?

Nicky watched through the clear seal of the airlock as blotches of broken veins spread across Joe’s unconscious face, the only part of Joe that was visible, unshielded from the vacuum of space by his suit. That the pools of blood beneath his skin were visible and growing larger meant that his heart would stop, soon. And then life would surge through Joe again, for a scant fifteen seconds, before oxygen deprivation stole his conscious thought and sent him into blessed unawareness once more.

Nicky had a lot of time to himself, in those five to six minutes between Joe’s brief periods of consciousness. Mainly, he used it to calculate the time it would take for Nile or Quynh to find them under various conditions. Before they all had boarded one of the last ships leaving Earth, they’d done some bot-assisted home surgery to insert tracking chips deeply in various places in their bodies, complete with redundancies. Though she was long healed, the shadow of Quynh’s ordeal was ever-present and they’d been well aware that the vastness of the Atlantic paled in comparison to the vastness of space.

All of which meant that he and Joe would be rescued. Eventually.

Beyond the round window of transparent aluminum, Joe’s four limbs jerked against the tethers holding him in the airlock bay. Joe’s eyes opened and met his in an instant. Joe’s lips moved, exaggerated, spelling out his words clearly for Nicky even as space’s vacuum swallowed up all the sound waves.

_I love you._

And then

_Look away, Nicky. Look away._

**Author's Note:**

> I know I'm super mean. I'm sorry, okay?
> 
> Update: [Direct sequel (and rescue!) here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29550990)


End file.
